At long last! Photos of the family room slash play room Cooper also felt like posing. I didn't feel like decluttering much.
This is the view from the dining room:
You can see that the previous owners put hardwood floors leading from the backdoor to the dining room and carpeted the rest of the room. It's okay--I don't hate carpet, although the color is kinda weird. It's like a greenish blueish color and it's not heinous but it's not awesome. We're thinking that we may decide to extend the hardwoods eventually, so we're not looking into replacing the carpet yet. It is nice, thick, high quality carpet--because when you're buying your carpet in a weird shade of turquoise, you evidently only buy the best!
Speaking of buying the best, here's our sofa:
We purchased it on Craigslist. From a very nice single girl who decided it was too big for her condo after barely using it. It's super comfortable and the price was such that I'm not worried about dogs or toddlers climbing all over it.
Vintage side table came from my grandparents.
The brown recliner is the same one we had at the old house, purchased in preparation for baby and lived in by me during the summer of 2012. Behind the recliner is David's bobble head curio cabinet and his collection of autographed baseballs and an adorable picture of Zuzu holding a baseball.
View of the TV. That's the buffet-turned-TV-console that was also a Craigslist find. The miniature recliner is still a Zuzu-favorite. And the buffet cabinets also hold more Zuzu toys. The play table in front was a freebie hand-me-down from our neighbors across the street. Zuzu loves it. Because it's ugly and makes a lot of noise. Of course she loves it!
Closure view of the curio cabinet and--surprise--Downey the Rocking Duck! (Birthday gift from Grammy and Gramps).
Entry way:
As you can see, I have a few bags. The storage baskets seemed like a great idea in theory, but Zuzu loves dragging them out and unpacking them, which is somewhat aggravating because playing with shoes is gross. I want to get a shelf to go above the hooks. I also kind of want to paint the metal door with fake wood grain. But what color? I was actually thinking black (I don't want to draw attention to it, but I do not love the fake wood grain). It's not a pressing project, though, so I'll ponder that later.
Picture of the gallery wall:
I actually like the paint color in this room. It's Restoration Hardware paint (according to the bucket in the basement) which I didn't even realize they made. I wanted to make the gallery asymmetrical, but David couldn't handle it. So we ended up with this. (For now. Bwahahaha)
Remember when we had two dogs and our baby looked like this?
(Speaking of Little Batshit Crazy, she continues to do well at my parents' house and does not appear to miss us or Cooper in the slightest. In fact, every time we visit, she has an "accident." Which is just about the most literal communication of "Piss off!" that I've ever seen. I still love her though. Perhaps even more since I can love her from a distance.)
Anyway, after we left Nipper's cousin, I started thinking about some of my favorite dog names. David's great-aunt Betty has a crazed pug named Gator, which is so fitting. One of my friends in grade school had a dachshund named Heidi, which was a very fitting German name. David's grandparents' friends have a very smart sheltie named Abe, which is perfect for his long and serious face. And when we used to go to the dog park (before Cooper embarrassed us one-too-many-times and we revoked his membership for being an a-hole), Coop used to socialize with an American bulldog named Dude. Dude was not well-behaved either, and had a habit of aggressively showing his affection for his friends by humping them. So his owner (an overgrown frat guy, as you might imagine) was always yelling, "Dude! Quit humping him! C'mon, Dude! Cut it out!" Ah, good times at the dog park.
I'm not sure how the post about the family room turned into a post about dog names, but I'd love to know the best dog names you've heard. I'm kind of dreaming about the day Cooper gets another sibling. Of the four-legged variety, obvy.
I just love your sense of style. It looks chic but homey!
ReplyDeleteOooo that room looks cozy. I'm not a huge carpet fan (though I love rugs everywhere) but when I see it other people's homes...it works. The colour wouldn't be my first choice either, but I can see from the pix the quality is high.
ReplyDeleteYour house reminds me of my childhood home. Almost the same lay out on your main floor with the living room, powder room and kitchen location. My house had a closed in dining room where your dining room is (and it was a crash pad for everything in our house and not a thing about it was for dining) and where your family room is, is where our ENTIRE kitchen continued as an 'eat in' area. Anyway.. My grandmother had the EXACT same end tables, and I think they made it into our house somehow while growing up, because I remember them vividly.
My grandmother had a poodle (toy poodle? The small kind) named Quincy. He was grey, and did absolutely everything he was told. Including going straight to his box when he misbehaved!
We had a German Shepherd collie cross named Lincoln. He was the sweetest dog. We called him Link. He got put down last year...oh how I miss him. I should have taken him when I moved out of my parents house when I was 18. He was just a few years old, and I walked him several times a day, and was really the only entertainment he had. Every few months when I'd go back to visit, he'd be pitting on more and more weight. Poor guy :(
Anyway, I don't know how my comment on your house and dog names all of a sudden became about my grief and sorrow about my dog!
First I love your couch. Great find. We got microfiber beacause it's easy to clean, and it is. But the problem is you ALWAYS have to clean it with the baby and dog slobber and baby spit up, etc. so I am digging the leather ones.
ReplyDeleteSecond, dog names. My parents first dog, who died when we were all young, was a golden retriever named Yankee for Yankee Doodle Dandy. Did I mention my parents are the most patriotic people ever? Also, my brother had a cocker spaniel we called Sarge, short for Sergeant Daniel the Cocker Spaniel. My sister's boxer is Bisbee Blue, often called the Bizz. Bisbee is a town in AZ and Blue for her old, loveable landlord named Barkley Blue. Coincidentially, I think Barkley would make a cute dog name.
What a great room!! I love your photo wall. I have something similar but much smaller in our living room and I like your look much better. Big!
ReplyDeleteI love the leather sofa. I'm not a big fan of carpet but it is better for bonks and rugs mean you have to vacuum the rug and then all around on the hardwood too.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to get inspiration to work on a photo wall but getting them all to hang right requires so much energy! But right now many photos that used to be safely on tabletops are now stacked in a pile because somebody likes to test gravity.
I like people names for pets--Ella and June in our house. My grandparents had a beloved little dog who my uncle named George, which I love (pre-Bush and royal baby) but when it was discovered she was actually a girl, George became Georgie. Coincidentally, there are probably more dogs named Bear and Bode than little boys. ha
Carpet is such a love-hate. It never looks as good as hardwood, but unless you plan on getting a plush rug, it never feels quite as "homey" either.
ReplyDeleteI think this room is great! I didn't even know you had a family room!
And Restoration Hardware paint? Whhhaaa? I think that although it's nice, perhaps a cheaper Sherwin-Williams would've done the trick, no? Just seems like an odd purchase, kind of like the carpet color.
Before we stripped the wallpaper and custom curtains from every single room of our house (that matched the wallpaper), we commented and appreciated that they matched the patterns of the curtains/wallpaper and that they were such high quality everything. But what odd taste. I can totally relate.
I think that buffet looks great in that room! In fact, I think I like it even more in that space than ever.
I love your living room - esp the gallery wall! That is impressive that everything is straight and balanced nicely.
ReplyDeleteNipper is the RCA dog. There is a famous giant Nipper Statue on top of a building in Albany, NY. http://www.squidoo.com/nipper
My dogs are named Sputnik and Laika. Sputnik was the first satellite and the word essentially translates to "Fellow Traveler". She is a schnoodle with crazy curly hair and given the chance, would run out of the yard to play with anything or anyone else on the street. Laika was the first dog in space (onboard Sputnik II) and translates to "Little Barker". She has the craziest, loudest bark for a little dog. So their names both fit their personalities, although we didn't know that when we named them.
Love your family room. Very warm and homey!
ReplyDeleteOur dog is named milo...but we usually call him duldey puppi. He is also called 'cheli' which in our native language, odiya, means a goat...because he has long, floppy goat like ears and hates to bath. Lol
We want to extend our hardwood floor too. Maybe we could get it from the same company and they'd give us a discount. (I think this for everything...including plastic surgery. Back in the day when I wanted implants, my friend and I seriously considered calling around to see if we could find a plastic surgeon who would go for it.)
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I typed all that out loud.
Moving on...
I see the "May good hope..." board I painted for you guys! I forgot about that one.
And I like your gallery wall. I know exactly where I want to put mine and it was supposed to get done this summer...and yeah, I haven't even bought the frames. Or printed the pictures. It looks awesome in my head though.
My aunt's neighbor has a bulldog puppy named Spartacus. :)
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ReplyDeleteA friend has two cats named Abby Normal and Taffeta Darling. You'd have to be a Young Frankenstein fan to appreciate those names! I guess that's much more original than my cats, Bert and Ernie.
You didn't feel like decluttering? Then I think you should do a series of blog posts on your organizational techniques.
ReplyDeleteMy husband wants to get a bloodhound and give her an old lady name like Maude. Our dog is named Bear Bryant, and he is somewhat of an autocrat, at least in his own mind. We took obedience classes with a tattooed girl with a bulldog named Knuckles, which I thought was a great bulldog name. When we were practicing come, she would get down and call him with this high, squeaky voice "heeeere knucky, knucky, knucky!"
I, alas, don't know many dogs; we were pretty much a cat family. We did have one cat who joined us as a tiny kitten and then over the years changed her name many times. She started off "Speed Bump" (very nearly literally, as we rescued her from the side of a busy highway on a rainy night), which became "Bumper", and then as her personality developed, "Nutsy Wacko", which became "N'Wa", and she ended up "Gracie", short for "Graystone".
ReplyDeleteAnd then there was the cat my sister got in high school who attracted the collection of names Esmurphelda Bertha Louise Lloyd Mauritz Wilson Friedemann (and, no, no purebred here, she was the lumpiest little puddle of fluff from the humane society ever).
I got the impression in the Netherlands that most people name their pets human names; we always got strange looks when we introduced Slinky and Widget to people.
Paint the door black, yes. I did that in our last house (it was a hideous shade of orange-brown-beige before) and I made it glossy black and it looked super-sharp.
ReplyDeleteMy fave dog name: back in the day when I would walk our Yorkie the people across the street were often walking their Pug. His name was WALTER. Awesome.
My aunt and uncle had a Boston named Nipper. We would all get together once a month or so, and the adults would play cards. Nipper would lay under the table and fart. Over and over. No one ever acknowleged the sound or smell. Poor Nipper. My puppies are English Springer Spaniel siblings named Dawson and Avery.It was easier naming my children than those 2 dogs.
ReplyDeleteI second Caroline's "Barkley"- our first family dog's name. I actually think we stole it from Sesame Street- I think that's the dog on the show's name. ha.
ReplyDeleteI love the paint colour- and the sectional- what a deal.
In that buffet picture, is that Caroline standing in the corner beside the buffet? If not, you have a creepy doll that looks like your daughter. ha.:)